A strength of modern networking derives from the ability of electronic devices to communicate with other devices. It has been useful to communicate with and control remotely located computers and access data in databases far removed from a user's location.
Networks, however, can comprise large numbers of devices. The complexity of networks continues to expand as does the application of network concepts to more and more disciplines and environments. Increasing types of devices with differing specifications are added to the growing list of elements within modern networks. A network may consist of a variety of types of devices, communicating over a variety of media and using various protocols. Such networks might include wireless devices, traditional voice, ATM, Frame Relay, Cable, DSL, and dial platforms. Optical networks are also becoming increasingly popular for performance reasons.
Recent trends in network technology have seen large enterprises and other users moving towards provisionable, or reconfigurable, networks. A provisionable network allows an enterprise to rapidly adapt to differing needs and to different conditions over time by the reconfiguration of network connections using software rather than physically manipulating the connection cables.
Management tools have been developed to cope with the demands imposed by both initial network layout and reconfiguration. Tools now exist that allow a network manager to view a graphic display of network resources in the form of network nodes and connections between them, and to form the connections during configuration.
However, in a heterogeneous node environment, some nodes may be connected, while others may not. Nodes, which can represent servers, computers, workstations, subnets, data banks, firewalls, etc., in the network, cannot always be connected directly to each other, due to the constraints of a node's various interface ports (e.g., Ethernet, SCSI, fiber-optic channel).
Typically, a network manager seeks out each connectable network resource for each device which needs interconnection, and forms a connection in the management tool. When a connection is formed between incompatible nodes in this manual and trial-and-error process, the manager may not discover the incompatibility until errors occur in network operation. Trial-and-error node connection techniques can be error-prone and tedious. This situation may be exacerbated when a manager is given no feedback as to whether nodes may or may not be connected until after a connection has been attempted.